Process of manufacturing dry diastatic yeast.



v P. A. BRANGIER.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING DRY DIASTATIG YEAST.

' APPLIOATIOH FILED P2119, 1910.

986,898. Patented Mar. 14, 1911.

715542162529 5;, fnvemaiaz W 03% Afirww PIERRE A. BRANGIER, OF AGNEW,CALIFORNIA.

PROCESS Of MANUFACTURING DRY DIASTATIC YEAST.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 14, 1911.

Application filed February 9, 1910. Serial No. 542,886.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PIERRE A. \BRANGIER, citizen of France, residing atAgnew, in the county 'of Santa Clara and State of California, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Processes of Manufacturing DryDiastatic Yeast, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture and preservation of yeast, andpertains especially to a process for manufacturing and drying diastaticyeast.

Compressed yeast, as it is known to the trade, contains when deliveredto the consumers from sixty to sixty-five per cent. of water. This stateof humidity makes the conservation of the article a very difficultproblem, and even an impossible one in hot weather, or in places wherethere is usually a hot climate. It has been'commonto add to compressedyeast at the moment it is used for baking, or for similar purposes, somediastatic product which during the various and successive bakingoperations transforms a certain amount of the starch of the flour intofermentable' sugar, thereby giving a ready food to the yeast, whichaction greatly helps the activities of its cellules. This diastaticproduct is added, then, at the moment ofuse, because if added to themoist yeast earlier it would immediately start the germ action, and sowould make the yeast of still less easy conservation.

The object of the present invention is to dry up yeast to a point whereits conservation is absolutely satisfactory; also to do this withoutheating the yeast and without altering its fermenting power; and also toadd to the yeast at the time of manufacture, rather than at the time ofuse, a certain amount of malt flour or equivalent, as a diastatic agentand as a ready food on account of the fermentable sugar and otherfeeding substances for yeast that it contains, and so treating thismixture by a drying process that the result is a dry, selfnourishing anddiastatic yeast.

The drawings represent a suitable apparatus for, carrying out theprocess, in. which- Figure 1 is a plan of the drying cylinder.

' Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the same.

In carrying Olltzth6.f)1'0CBSS the yeast is regularly made as usua andmixed witln a suitable proportion of malt flour, which proportion may.be from one to forty per cent, more or less, of the volume of yeast.This mixture is then divided into such small sections as desired; smallcubes, or other shapes, preferably pills, of about one-quarter of aninch in diameter. These are then placed in suitable holders or baskets,as A, preferably of wire netting. These holders A fit into flanged holesin a suitable revolving drying cylinder 2, here shown as heX agonal. Theholders or baskets A as they are filled are closed by suitable means, asthe plugs 3. The cylinder is then partly filled with a certain amount ofpotato starch previously well-dried and deprived of its water; thecharging of the cylinder with the dry starch being done through one ormore holes in the cyllnder from which the basket or baskets have beenomitted, these holes being filled by the plugs 3. The cylinder is thenset in slow rotary mot-ion, and the potato starch coming successively incontact with each of the foraminous holders, and by reason of itsaflinity for water, absorbs from the yeast the water in the same up to acertain point, whereupon the moist or Wet starch is removed, andreplaced by another batch of well-dried starch, the cylinder againrevolved, and so on, until the yeast is .dry enough to be of easyconservation. The same potato starch can be used again withoutpractically any loss, the only point being to dry it well before usingagain.

While I prefer potato starch, manifestly, any other suitable absorptivematerial having a great aflinity for water, and which is harmless andpreferably such a substance as can be repeatedly re-dried and reusedwithout deterioration, may be employed. Potato starch .meets theserequirements because in its regular state it contains from twenty totwenty-three per cent. of water, and if deprived of this water itquickly absorbs it again when put in contact with any wet 'or moistmaterial.

Any suitable form of drying apparatus may beemployed, but I prefer therotary cylinder and the foraminous containers A for reasons ofsimplicity and expediency.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent isv 1. The process of drying yeast-cakes, said processconsisting of subjecting the prepared yeast-cake to the contact of thedrylng agent comprising loose particles having wa- .tenabsorptiveproperties.

2. The process of drying an article of yeast liable to injury by heat,said process consisting in subjecting the external surfaces of thearticle to the contact of a drying agent comprising loose particleshaving into forms, and then subjecting the forms to the action of a dryabsorbent in a loose condition.

4E. The process of drying yeast cake which consists in subjecting theexterior surfaces of the finished yeast cake to the contact of a dry,healthful, water-absorptive substance of loose character.

5. The process of drying yeast cake which consists in forming the yeastcake into suitable shapes and then drying them by bringinginto contactwith the exterior surfaces thereof, potato starch or equivalent in aloose condition.

6. The method of making yeast-cakes which consists of mixing malt flour,as food and diastatie agent, With yeast, making the mixture intosuitable shapes, and drying the shapes by contact with a healthful,Waterabsorbent medium, in a dry, loose condition.

7. The method of making a self-nourishing yeast cake, which consists ofmixing a self-nourishing and diastatic agent with the yeast, and dryingthe mass by contact with a. dry loose absorbent in the absence of heatand without destroying or changing the fermentation and saccharifyingqualities of the moisture.

8. The method of making diastatic and self-nourishing yeast cake whichconsists in mixing a suitable diastatic agent with the yeast, shapingthe mixture into suitable forms, and drying these forms by bringing incontact therewith potato starch in a granular condition.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

PIERRE A. BRANGIER. Witnesses:

CHARLES EDELMAN, C. C. Coon.

